Technical SEO is work improving the non-content parts of your website. These tend to be the elements behind the scenes that visitors don’t see (but often affect their experience of the website!) Machines are writing stories and that is often something Google is not a fan of. One of the biggest challenges websites face today when trying to bring in and retain customers is the user experience on the site. It is commonplace to have a staging server (also called a dev site) setup for your website re-design / re-model project. It is also a good practice since you shouldn’t be building a site in a live environment where your users can interact with an unfinished product.

The after-Penguin effect

SEO results are only keenly felt long-term, and therefore it can be difficult for small business owners to see the value in taking time out of their day to write about their industry. SEO is a complicated subject with many ins and outs, and it changes on an almost daily basis--but at the same time, it's not black magic. It's also not something you need an advanced degree or previous experience for. While it's true that keyword-stuffing will be harshly penalised by Google, intelligent use of on-page tags that help potential customers to find your site remains vital; the margin between the best SEO company and the also-rans frequently lies here. Make sure the site's meta descriptions and titles include both primary and secondary keywords and are unique for each page. All images' alt text need to be keyword optimised and descriptive, without forgetting to optimise video content as well with relevant meta data. So one of the best long-term marketing tactics is regularly publishing content on your site. Develop an editorial calendar and create a plan to consistently publish new evergreen content if you want to create long-term value for your website.

Use Short And Descriptive URL Permalink

The bad news about SEO is that it’s not as simple as flicking a couple of switches. Nor is it a one-time deal; SEO has to be a consistent part of your ongoing marketing. There is also an overwhelming amount of information available online – how do you know where to begin? Link Building adds a level of credibility to your website which just isn’t present without those links to reliable information sources backing up whatever claims you’re making back on your own website. Everyone knows not to trust everything they read on the Internet, but finding other sites saying the same things sure doesn’t hurt. Remember, there is no such thing as a one-size-fits-all solution when it comes to optimization strategies. For the most part, you’ll be relying on trial and error to pinpoint what works and what doesn’t for your brand. The number, accuracy and quality of your business' local citations improve its chances of featuring highly in search results.

Is your code too bulky?

Constant changes to Google’s search rankings to hinder exploitative techniques and an algorithm that’s as hard to crack as KFC’s herbs and spices recipe mean a lot of what we know about search engine optimisation is largely conjecture. Competitor analysis is a lot easier when you have the right tools. As Google continues to prioritize the user experience in its algorithm, this data can become critical. It’s one thing to provide a list of items that generally lead to a better user experience (like we did above), but it’s another thing completely to be able to address extremely specific elements of that experience. We asked an SEO Specialist, Gaz Hall, for his thoughts on the matter: "Responsive design — or, in other words, a Web layout that provides a quality experience no matter the screen size — is among the factors Google uses to determine search results. You may even find your site penalized if you haven’t yet embraced responsive design."

Complete preliminary keyword research

You need to produce quality content that provides valuable insight. Google has enhanced its algorithms to weed out low-quality pages from its index. Therefore, if you are not part of Google’s directory, search engines will not include you in their results. And you can imagine what that can mean for your website! Higher volumes of backlinks are great, but combining that with high diversity is what’s really going to move the needle. If the same content appears multiple times on your website, search engines must pick the best version of the content for the search results. That can go wrong. It is better to remove duplicate content from your website so that search engines can easily find the most relevant page on your site. Google is getting better every year at detecting spammer and low-quality links. Being proactive about taking a safe approach is the only way to avoid a penalty.